


Belated Realization

by sunaddicted



Series: Tumblr Prompts 2021 [4]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Post-Movie: SPECTRE (2015), Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, SPECTRE (2015) Fix-It, Short, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 21:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30078495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunaddicted/pseuds/sunaddicted
Summary: “I thought you were done”“I am”I was.
Relationships: James Bond & Q, Pre James Bond/Q
Series: Tumblr Prompts 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2182554
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	Belated Realization

**Author's Note:**

> My dearest @christinefromsherwood asked for 00q + "I never knew you were a cat person" (with extra point if it was said to Q)

_ Belated Realization _

James had wanted to leave - desperately so. 

He had left Madeleine with the order to pack up and the implicit promise that he was leaving her behind only to come back and whisk her away to some isolated foreign country where the probabilities of someone finding them would be lower; he had had a pep in his step that he hadn’t had in a very long while, the sensation so strange that he had mistaken it for residual post-mission nerves instead of recognizing it as excitement; he had been ready to leave, unburdened by the self-imposed sense of responsibility that he had tortured himself with for most of his life.

“I thought you were done”

“I am”  _ I was _ . James tilted his chin up, his eyes zeroing in on the other man, sitting alone at his desk in the artificial twilight of MI6; Q looked exactly like he always did: terribly young and somewhat frazzled around the edges despite how prim and proper he presented himself as - and clearly expecting an explanation as to why he was standing there in front of him. 

The plan had been simple:

  * Go in.
  * Smile charmingly.
  * Get the car.
  * _Leave_.



“Bond”

“I never knew you were a cat person”

Q blinked, confused; if he recollected correctly - and he did, he had the kind of memory people would have given a limb for - he had mentioned his cats just the once to the other man in a throwaway and exasperated comment, to which Bond hadn’t hesitated to offer a snarky reply and a bastard grin before landing him in hot water as usual. The agent hadn’t seemed too worried about his proclivity back then - hell, he hadn’t sounded even remotely interested which had been perfectly reasonable to Q: why Bond should have cared about his cats? “So what?”

James shrugged “It stuck with me” inexplicably, his brain had sequestered the detail away and spat it back out while he was on his way to MI6; it was such an insignificant realization but it still hooked him, made him wonder what else Q hid behind too thick glasses and his extravagant suits that didn’t flatter him but somehow still suited him more than they had any right to - it made him wonder about what else he was leaving behind.

And if it was worth it.

Q stepped closer, head tilted to the side “What are you doing here?”

James was unused to people being so direct when talking to him: he was the sort of man who intimidated people but Q just stood there in front of him, as if James couldn’t easily reach out and snap his neck; as if he couldn’t break his fingers with brute force and ruin his career; as if he couldn’t hurt him.

It was disarming.

“I don’t know”

“You should stay until you do”

And inexplicably, he did.

  
  



End file.
